Food Companies Are Out To Get You

June 5, 2012

One thing I’ve learned so far in my journey is something I’ve always known in the back of my mind…food companies only really care about themselves and not their customers. I will pick on General Mills for a second, mainly because I always loved their cereals. They sold $14.9 billion worth of their wares last year making a profit of $2.9 billion. Do you really think it matters to them if they lose a couple of Cheerios eaters along the way? It doesn’t, not one bit. The Cheerios eater can die or change their lifestyle or whatever and General Mills does not care, why? Because they are a giant soulless, lifeless corporation! That’s why! Do I honestly believe that they have mad scientists sitting in labs figuring out how to kill people with the large amounts of sugar in their cereals, yes, I mean no, of course that’s probably not true but where there is smoke, there is fire.

Cheerios (and yes I’m a former Cheerios addict) is one of the better cereals out there, health-wise and it’s a giant trap for diabetics and folks seeking to lose weight. The total carbohydrates in a serving (1 cup) of Cheerios is 20 grams. That isn’t a lot when you compare it with their other cereals. Chocolate Lucky Charms, for instance has 24 grams of total carbs and its serving size is 3/4 of a cup. When is the last time you were able to eat 3/4 cup of cereal? See the game that’s being played? They aren’t consistent about serving sizes even across their own products, it’s not a lie, certainly but it’s clearly an attempt to mislead. I was completely ignorant of this before I started really paying attention to labels and the way foods are made.

I’m not one of these crazy hippy “get back on the farm” types but you really do need to develop a relationship with your food. Understand where it comes from and how it is made. If you saw where cereal was made (never mind sausage) you might never eat it again either. I’m not talking about going to a farm and slaughtering a cow but you should understand where that cow is being slaughtered, how it was taken care of and more importantly how it was handled after slaughter. I think if I understood this fully before, a) I would’ve stopped eating meat and b) would’ve been a lot skinnier in the first place. I’m learning that it is just super important to really grasp where you food is coming from and how it relates to your body than just about anything else nutrition-wise. In the next couple of posts I’ll explore nutrition labels and why, as my nutritionist says “those are just places for the companies to print lies”

Anyway, thanks General Mills for being a good sport and really I loved your cereals for many years but I’ve moved on and so should you. I picked on them because Cheerios was an addiction of mine but there are a lot of cereal manufacturers out there with even less morals and even bigger lies. The bigger picture though is that of personal responsibility, I know folks who eat cereal for every meal and are just fine, their bodies can handle it, if yours can’t then it is up to you to make smarter choices (I’m learning this the excruciatingly hard way). If you’re like I am trying desperately not to be anymore and think “well they wouldn’t make it or advertise it that way if it was really bad for me” then you need to really examine your mindset. I was addicted to eating Cheerios for breakfast (and sometimes dinner) but no one forced me to, I ate way more than the serving size but I was the one pouring it into my bowl. The least we could do is make it tough for these companies to pick us off.